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Tories set up early election call

The Conservative government does not believe opposition parties will let it govern effectively in the coming session of Parliament and is preparing to force an election in the coming weeks, a top government official says.

OTTAWA–The Conservative government does not believe opposition parties will let it govern effectively in the coming session of Parliament and is preparing to force an election in the coming weeks, a top government official says.

The official in Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office said it appears the opposition parties are not interested in finding the "common ground" the Tories feel is necessary to go ahead with the fall sitting of the House of Commons on Sept. 15.

Harper has requested a meeting with the opposition leaders to find out their intentions and could ask Governor General Michaëlle Jean to call an election that he hopes will give his party a clear majority.

Speculation is the Tories would like to see a campaign launched before three Sept. 8 by-elections in Ontario and Quebec.

Jean will be in China from Sept. 6 to 10 for the opening of the Paralympic Games and other events, fuelling speculation the call could come the first week of September.

"It seems more likely at this point that there won't be agreement" with the opposition leaders, said the government official, who spoke on background.

"After those meetings, things could develop quickly. We will have a clear path forward. We want to have the meetings soon but ... I don't think it's going to be an eight-week melodrama."

Labour Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn said he had been called to an urgent cabinet meeting in Ottawa for today and had cleared his schedule for the next week because he took the election threat to be imminent.

The government official downplayed the importance of any meetings over the weekend, saying Harper himself planned to spend time with his family in Ottawa.

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, the key figure in the talks, returns to Ottawa Monday, the same day Harper leaves for a three-day Arctic tour. Dion and Harper could meet up again next Friday or over the Labour Day weekend, but the Liberal chief will be in Winnipeg for a party caucus meeting between Sept. 2 and 4.

Dion said earlier this week that he plans to meet with the Prime Minister and hinted he could stop what he called "strategic voting" on government bills – ordering most of his caucus to abstain from votes that would provoke an election while symbolically opposing the Tory agenda items.

But he gave no sign yesterday in Cambridge, Ont. what position he will take into the meeting, nor when it could occur.

"If there is an election, not only will we be ready, but we intend to win it," he said.

Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe said it would be "disrespectful and irresponsible" to pre-empt the by-election campaigns that are already underway.

The NDP has regularly opposed the Tories, but party leader Jack Layton now says Harper would be holding Parliament in contempt if he opts for an early election call.

Under a Tory bill setting fixed election dates, the next vote is not supposed to occur until October 2009 unless the government is defeated in a confidence vote.

The government official said Harper will not present specific legislation that he wants passed in the Commons this fall but would be searching to find out if opposition parties are really out to stifle his plan for governing in the coming weeks.

"I think when a minority government first comes in ... you get to move on a broad range of legislation and increasingly, over a time, it takes more and more effort to get less and less done," the official said.

"We are at a pretty critical time. There are economic challenges on the horizon and there are a broad range of items that this government would like to see happen and a broad range of things the opposition would like to see happen that are pretty different than what we want to see. An election would clear the air and give a government – ours or a Liberal government – some open water to swim in."

Dion, who has been reluctant to commit to toppling the Conservative minority in a non-confidence vote, said an election call by Harper would violate his own law setting fixed election dates.

"Now he wants to change this rule without changing the law, so he will break the law," Dion as he wrapped up a three-day campaign-style swing through the GTA and southern Ontario.

Dion signalled that would be a campaign issue for the Liberals, along with broken promises by the Conservatives on the Atlantic Accord, and taxing income trusts, which riled the business community and ordinary investors.

He accused Harper of wanting to gloss over the rapidly deteriorating economic climate and the Conservatives' "in-and-out" overspending scandal that had its origins in the last federal election.

A decision by Harper to call by-elections in Guelph and two other ridings Sept. 8 and another in Don Valley West on Sept. 22 raises questions about his ability to manage the public purse, Dion said.

Dion used his three-day Ontario tour to tout his green plan to put a carbon tax on fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.

In Toronto yesterday, Dion told about 250 supporters that Harper's objection to the plan puts the Prime Minister on the wrong side of the issue.

"Almost all the economists are telling us, 'Well, for once, David Suzuki is right... . When you have all this agreement, there's one economist who says, 'All this is insane, all these people are crazy.' Unfortunately, for now at least, he's still the prime minister of our country."

With files from Rob Ferguson

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